be getting a bonus if this campaign is landed?”

He steepled his fingers together and blew out a long breath. “Look, I’m not making any promises, but maybe I can ask Martin to include you in on whatever percentage the others are getting if your input is able to help us land the campaign.”

My eyes widened. Martin Landow was the president of the company and the biggest chauvinist pig there was. He had apparently sent Norm in his place to do his bidding. I opened my laptop back up and began typing as Norm continued with his plea.

“None of them seem to have the same spark of creativity as you do. I told Martin he was making a mistake by not putting you on.”

“Well, I’m sure he was only doing what his dear friend Jonathan had asked. But you don’t have to do me any favors, Norm. I don’t want a bonus for working on Jonathan Schroeder’s campaign because I don’t intend to work on it. In fact…” I typed out my last word and hit the send key with vigor before closing my laptop. “I won’t be doing any more work for this company at all. My resignation was just emailed to Martin effective immediately.”

“What?” Norm popped up from his seat. “Jillian, you can’t do this! You’re in the middle of heading up two of our major campaigns.”

“Well, there’ll always be someone else who could take my place. Pria is more than qualified.”

“Jillian, come on. You know she’s not ready to take on that role,” Norm shouted as I grabbed my things and strode across my office.

I turned around as I reached the door. “She’s more than ready. She may not be ready to sleep with Martin, and maybe that’s where he’s getting confused, but she’s more than ready to do the job. You’re better than the rest of them, Norm…give her a chance.”

“Jillian, please,” he called as I headed out of the office for the last time with my head held high.

The reality of what I had done didn’t hit me until I was walking into the restaurant. I quit my job. I had actually quit. Evan had been on me for years to get out of there and just do consulting work after I had told him what a “boys’ club” that place was. I’d work myself to death trying to prove I was just as worthy as the male employees. I’d come home stressed out after working fourteen-hour days and in turn took that stress out on Evan.

In hindsight, I knew our infertility issues weren’t the only reason for the rift in our marriage. My job played a big part in it, as well as his. If only I had listened and left years ago when he had suggested it, then maybe he’d still be here, and maybe we would have had a child. My doctor did say stress played a big part in not being able to become pregnant. Then after all the tests he ran, he decided that it was more than likely my internal issues that were the hindrance.

After we had received that devastating news, we tried our best to accept it and became more lax, instead of the planned sex at certain times of the month right down to the minute. We figured it wasn’t going to happen ever, so we were more relaxed about it. In a way, it was freeing. Yes, we were upset, but it allowed us to rekindle the sense of intimacy in our marriage that we had years ago, before any talk of babies even came into the picture.

Then one day my period was late, and I decided to use up the extra pregnancy test under the bathroom sink just to get rid of it. Much to my surprise, two lines appeared. It was so surreal. I felt as if the universe was playing some sick joke on me. My doctor had told me I had a two percent chance of ever conceiving, so that little stick I was holding in my hand was like a miracle. I remember staring at it for over an hour, thinking the second line would fade, but it only became darker.

I rushed to the pharmacy to purchase another test kit, certain the one I had just used was defective, but when I got home the new one had yielded the same results. Evan had been over the moon when I told him. We had planned to keep it between us until I was at least three months along. We didn’t want to get his parents’ hopes up of having their very first grandchild only to have them shattered if something were to happen.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have to keep our secret for too long. Nine weeks and three days after one of the happiest days of my life, I had experienced one of the worst ones. I was at work in the middle of a staff meeting when I was plagued with god-awful cramps. When I went into the bathroom, my worst fear was confirmed. My miracle was gone just as quickly as it came. After that, I got sucked into a deep depression, not wanting to see anyone or do anything. Evan only added to it when he decided to leave for his business trip right after it happened, at a time when I needed him most. The one thing that had brought us together had torn us apart. We started to drift further and further away. I spent more hours at the office and so did he. We became ships passing in the night, lucky if we had dinner together once a week. The baby we had lost had become an unspoken part of our marriage, and I resented Evan more and more each day for pretending like it had never happened.

“Jilly!” DeAndre’s voice snapped me back to the present as he called for me from the bar area.

“Hey!” I smiled, walking over to where he and Louis were sitting, each

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